In football, continuity doesn’t sell newspapers and familiarity doesn’t light up the search engines.
Success may be the goal of every club but it’s often the turmoil and instability brought on by failure which makes the best story.

So, while the struggles of Blackburn, QPR and Wolves have earned plenty of column inches this season, the outstanding achievements of Swansea and Norwich have passed with less comment.
Yet, win tomorrow and Swansea break through the mythical 40-point survival mark with eight games to play. Victory for Norwich would have them dreaming of another top-flight season on 39 points.

The theme that unites the two? Continuity in the dug-out, familiarity in the squad and a refusal to tear up the template at the first sign of adversity.

They share continuity, familiarity and a refusal to tear up the template at the first sign of adversity

The Norwich squad beaten at Newcastle last week featured four players involved in the League One win over Leeds two years previously and, in Jonny Howson and Bradley Johnson, two players who faced Norwich that day.

In Paul Lambert, they have a manager unafraid to keep faith with players who helped get the club out of League One, or to return to the lower leagues to cherry-pick people capable of performing in the top- flight.

In Brendan Rodgers, Swansea have a kindred spirit.The Northern Irishman’s patient passing play may have failed to catch on at Reading but in south Wales his approach was less revolutionary.

The emphasis placed on possession by Roberto Martinez and Paulo Sousa fitted perfectly with the new man’s philosophy and Rodgers was canny enough to realise the likes of Leon Britton and Ashley Williams – lower-league journeymen in the eyes of some – were capable of controlling the rhythm of the nearest thing the Premier League has to Barcelona.

And, while fellow new boys QPR were an agent’s best friend in January, trying to rebuild their team for the second time in four months, Rodgers simply borrowed his old Reading man Gylfi Sigurdsson from Hoffenheim, a signing derided in this column at the time but a player who has five goals from nine games.

Rather than be seduced by a big name or a bigger fee, Lambert and Rodgers appear more concerned about how a player will fit into the existing, successful system.

Continuity and familiarity. It may not gain many headlines, but in football, it will win you a lot of friends.

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